Secession and Civil War

"That this nation under God shall have a new birth of
freedom."
-- President Abraham Lincoln, November 19, 1863

Lincoln's victory in the presidential election of November
1860 made South Carolina's secession from the Union
December 20 a foregone conclusion. The state had long been
waiting for an event that would unite the South against the
antislavery forces. By February 1, 1861, five more Southern
states had seceded. On February 8, the six states signed a
provisional constitution for the Confederate States of
America. The remaining Southern states as yet remained in
the Union, although Texas had begun to move on its
secession.

Less than a month later, March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was
sworn in as president of the United States. In his
inaugural address, he declared the Confederacy "legally
void." His speech closed with a plea for restoration of the
bonds of union, but the South turned a deaf ear. On April
12, Confederate guns opened fire on the federal garrison at
Fort Sumter in the Charleston, South Carolina, harbor. A
war had begun in which more Americans would die than in any
other conflict before or since.

In the seven states that had seceded, the people responded
positively to the Confederate action and the leadership of
Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Both sides now
tensely awaited the action of the slave states that thus
far had remained loyal. Virginia seceded on April 17;
Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina followed quickly.

No state left the Union with greater reluctance than
Virginia. Her statesmen had a leading part in the winning
of the Revolution and the framing of the Constitution, and
she had provided the nation with five presidents. With
Virginia went Colonel Robert E. Lee, who declined the
command of the Union Army out of loyalty to his native
state.

Between the enlarged Confederacy and the free-soil North
lay the border slave states of Delaware, Maryland,
Kentucky, and Missouri, which, despite some sympathy with
the South, would remain loyal to the Union.

Each side entered the war with high hopes for an early
victory. In material resources the North enjoyed a decided
advantage. Twenty-three states with a population of 22
million were arrayed against 11 states inhabited by nine
million, including slaves. The industrial superiority of
the North exceeded even its preponderance in population,
providing it with abundant facilities for manufacturing
arms and ammunition, clothing, and other supplies. It had a
greatly superior railway network.

The South nonetheless had certain advantages. The most
important was geography; the South was fighting a defensive
war on its own territory. It could establish its
independence simply by beating off the Northern armies. The
South also had a stronger military tradition, and possessed
the more experienced military leaders.